“We say after he turned round he had three to four seconds in which to assess the situation. He had to make a panicked decision of how he was going to avoid the group in front of him.

“He could not have stopped the car and reversed because it would have caused the group to come towards him and put his life in danger.

“The only available alternative was to drive to the right and try and swerve round the group.

“The tragedy of the case is that Mr Priest got hit because he was in the road and he slipped.”

But the prosecution alleged that Mockble was intent on getting revenge after his £10,000 1.9 litre Golf, which he had bought just two months earlier, was damaged. They say that Mockble’s previous convictions for assault, affray and threatening behaviour, all showed that he was “not a man to back down when provoked”.

Judge John Warner was this morning set to sum up the case to the jury before they retire to consider their verdict.

(proceeding)